It is the middle of the SF LGBT Film Festival, high holy days are underway in the City by the Bay, Pride is coming, and outside the festival’s host venues, gay film buffs are rubbing their bleary eyes after marathon sessions in the dark. The cinematic apparatus, not that other dark! There is something for everyone at this annual festival, now in its 35th year. The shorts programs are some of the best, and for those with short attention spans, are just the ticket. One film is not doing it for you? Wait 5 minutes. The next one could be all that.
“All that glitters is indeed gold in this wonderful collection of shorts featuring several gems from our very own Bay Area filmmakers… Take a look at disgusting alien bodies and eavesdrop on the deaf relay system. Follow a camera off a bridge in a memorial for lives lost. A dispute on the high seas can only be settled by a dance off (of course), and we’ll see just how campy an AIDS camp can be. Rounding out the program is a silent comedy set to Tchaikovsky and starring Peggy the Peg-leg Ballerina.” via festival director Jennifer Morris
“Glitter Emergency” shows at the Victoria Theatre, 9:30 pm on Tuesday, June 21st, 2011. The Victoria is located at 2961 16th Street in the Mission district. Built in 1908 as a Vaudeville House, it is the oldest operating theatre in San Francisco.
The Queer Cultural Center will be awarding at least 20 commissions of between $250 – $1000 each for individual artists and groups to help create and stage innovative community-building projects. Cross-cultural, multi-ethnic and intergenerational projects are strongly encouraged. To be considered, you MUST attend the 90-minute introductory workshop on June 29th at 7pm at the Center for Sex and Culture in San Francisco. The address is 1519 Mission Street at 11th. For more information on the annual funding process, click here.
Ursine Megafauna coming down from the hills for a little party perhaps. This one was taken by my elderly mother on her iPhone, from the back patio of friends of hers in the Sierra Foothills, during a dinner party. Pause the cello music, please. And yes, I think I will take more wine. West slope, under 2000 ft elevation. Perhaps he was on his way down to Sacramento to chat up the politicos. Lobby THIS, people. Grrrrrrr!
Seen on the awning of a shop on Mission Street in San Francisco, on my walk home tonight. Strange art for a Saturday night/Sunday morning…
(Also, note the “Like” sticker slapped on – Facebook-inspired graffiti?)
-AidanAbroad
But does it? Well-known Leatherman and friend of this site Peter Fiske has made an “It Gets Better” video and posted it on YouTube. We are, of course, re-posting. Kudos, Peter! It is fantastic. Of course. Messages of future promise are great, and can be just the thing to turn despair into hope. But. But. But. The “It Gets Better” video pep talks, started by columnist Dan Savage last year in an effort to curb high rates of suicide among queer youth, have really taken off. Cool. More on them here. Great campaign, but…it is not enough. Not nearly.
By all means, keep these positive messages coming. But. But. But. There are a few problems here. First off, it does not always get better – and we know that. If it always got better, dead friend of this site and Frameline co-founder Mark Finch would not have jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge. A popular, successful adult gay man kills himself. Or: youthful co-conspirator WRG, handsome, smart, set to inherit two fortunes, dead in a hotel room in Rio with a spike in his arm, the body stripped of valuables. They had to identify him by dental records. Just two examples. It did not get better for either of them, and they were pretty well set to overcome the past.
But. But. But. Another problem: The most vulnerable queer kids may be those least likely to be able to respond to these messages. Consider two scenarios:
One: You are 17, a junior in high school, with loving, educated PFLAG parents, a nice group of theatre friends, early acceptance to UC, and a problem with the school bully who taunts you with calls of “Faggot!” and elbows you in the hallways to the amusement of his toadies. It makes your stomach churn.
Two: You are 17, living on the periphery of San Francisco’s Castro district. You left Idaho and your violent Christian Identity family at 13 when your mother caught you with another boy. She broke a bottle over your head as you fled the house. See the scar? Arriving in SF, you met guys who turned you on to meth and fucked you raw. Already shell-shocked from childhood, you seroconverted at 14, have been on the streets for four years, and look really rough. Half-crazy with rage and despair, you kick trash cans and shout in frustration, sometimes sit on the curb sobbing. Everyone avoids you.
These are two pretty extreme, but true, examples. “It Gets Better” is a good message, but it is not enough. The kids need more than words. Even the UC-bound good gay kid needs more than words. And seriously damaged youth need a lot more. They also need the tools to survive a world which will continue at times to be hostile. Food. Shelter. Protection. Health care, including mental health and substance abuse help. Access to education, job-training, connections and good adult mentorship. Spiritual support, including services for survivors of religious abuse. They do not need to be encouraged in magical thinking: “Oh…if I can only get to San Francisco! It’s like Oz! Everything will be fabulous!” Yes, sometimes it gets better. But: it does not always get better, and it does not automatically get better. If we actually want to see the kids flourish, we need to open our eyes to the full scope of the horror under which some queer kids come up – and add real resources that are equal to our encouraging words. We need to get real.
“Conservatives are right to value marriage as the world’s most powerful social institution. The marital bond provides a nongovernmental social safety net, whereby individuals care for one another and anchor civil society in self-sufficiency.
“But to deny one class of citizens the freedom to marry based on their sexual orientation is discriminatory – anathema to the great tradition of freedom and equal opportunity upon which the Republican Party was founded. Civil unions are an inadequate substitute. We’ve seen in America that separate is never equal.
“Limited-government conservatives believe in maximum individual freedom consistent with law and order. We do not believe that the state should have the power to confer rights upon some law-abiding citizens while discriminating against others.
“Nor should the government be in the business of telling churches, synagogues or mosques whom they can and cannot marry. That’s why the bill in New York includes protections for religious liberties that ensure no religious leader or institution will have to solemnize marriages for same-sex couples.”
…tonight at our “Hootenanny” Western-themed show (country and Americana). Catch us Saturday at 2pm or 8pm. Details here. Dancing gay cowboys, country drag, “Home On The Range” like you’ve never heard it, and much more!
-AidanAbroad
A cluster of red buds on some endangered snow flowers in Lassen National Park yesterday. The park ranger told me that they grow up through the snow in early spring, feeding on the roots if trees rather than on chlorophyll.
-AidanAbroad
A hot geyser (or gay-sir, as my Icelandic friends insist is the correct pronunciation) in snowy Lassen National Park today. Brown bubbles and sulfuric steam… a good detour.
-AidanAbroad
It is the middle of the SF LGBT Film Festival, high holy days are underway in the City by the Bay, Pride is coming, and outside the festival’s host venues, gay film buffs are rubbing their bleary eyes after marathon sessions in the dark. The cinematic apparatus, not that other dark! There is something for everyone at this annual festival, now in its 35th year. The shorts programs are some of the best, and for those with short attention spans, are just the ticket. One film is not doing it for you? Wait 5 minutes. The next one could be all that.
gayhighwaymen
Maštíŋčala Sáŋ
The Gay Highwaymen 